A natural hip joint may undergo degenerative changes due to a variety of etiologies. When these degenerative changes become so far advanced and irreversible, it may ultimately become necessary to replace a natural hip joint with a prosthetic hip. When implantation of such a hip joint prosthesis becomes necessary, the head of the femur, the acetabular, or both may need to be replaced. The head of the natural femur is first resected and a cavity is created within the intramedullary canal of the host femur for accepting the hip prosthesis. The hip prosthesis may be inserted and supported within the host femur by cementing the hip prosthesis within the host femur. Alternatively, the hip prosthesis may be impacted into the host femur so that it is snugly fit and supported by the host femur. If the acetabulum also needs repair, all remnants of articular cartilage are generally removed from the acetabulum and an acetabular prosthesis which will accommodate the head or ball of the hip prosthesis is affixed to the acetabulum. The acetabular prosthesis is affixed to the acetabulum by means of cement, screws or other appropriate fixation means.
Due to any number of reasons, however, a small portion of patients that undergo such orthopedic surgical procedures may require subsequent revision surgery to replace the prosthetic device with a new prosthetic device generally referred to as a revision prosthesis. One example of such a device is generally known as a protrusio cage.
In this regard, a revision acetabular prosthesis will generally include additional mounting points, such as integral extension members or hooks that provide additional stability for the revision acetabular prosthesis. These additional mounting points are generally required due to additional bone loss or defects exhibited at the acetabulum, such as collar/rim defects or pelvic discontinuity defects.
Various types of revision acetabular prostheses are currently available and different surgeons prefer different types of revision acetabular prostheses. Some surgeons prefer to use what is known as an ilium flange that is formed integral with the acetabular prosthesis and enables further securement of the acetabular prosthesis in the ilium region of the pelvis. Other surgeons prefer to use what is known as an obturator hook that is able to provide inferior fixation of the acetabular prosthesis by engaging the obturator foramen which is a large aperture adjacent the acetabulum. Because of this, a hospital must maintain a large inventory of different revision acetabular cups to meet the various surgeons' preferences. Moreover, the surgeon generally requires several revision acetabular cups available during surgery to account for any type of condition that may arise during the surgical procedure. This increased inventory of prosthetic devices increases the overall hospital costs and inventory control. Furthermore, by requiring the multiple revision acetabular cups to be available during the surgical procedure, multiple prosthetic devices must be sterilized prior to the surgical procedure, thereby increasing the surgical time, cost and complexity.
Regardless of the reason for the revision implant, or the use of the protrusio cage acetabular implant, the use of such a system requires first affixing the cage to the bone portion remaining in the patient and then affixing an acetabular shell or liner relative to the cage. The cage assists in reinforcing the bone structure of the patient, while the shell provides the bearing surface for the head of the femur or the ball of the implant.
The shell may be made out of any appropriate material, but is generally made of a ultra high molecular weight polyethylene. The shell is generally affixed into the protrusio cage with bone cement to complete the acetabular reconstruction. Because of this two piece system and type of attachment, however, it is often difficult for the surgeon to precisely implant the shell due to the relatively unconstrained possibilities of placing the shell in the protrusio cage. Moreover, there is not a way of fixing the shell within the protrusio cage before implanting the shell into the cage to test a range of motion of the hip joint after implantation into the shell.
Therefore, it is desired to provide a protrusio cage and shell implant that will allow a trialing of the hip joint through a range of motion before affixing the shell to the protrusio cage. Moreover, it is desired to provide a protrusio cage, which will allow for a trialing shell to be selectively and removably affixed to the implanted protrusio cage so that a hip joint may be trialed through a range of motion before affixing the implant shell. Presently, this is not possible because of the fixation required for the shell into the protrusion cage implant. Finally, it is also desired to provide a trial cage, that may be placed in the resected acetabulum to assure a proper orientation of the protrusio cage before implanting the final cage.